Bee County commissioners adopted a $6.6 million spending plan on Monday that called for a 3 percent pay raise for employees and a 3-cent tax rate hike.

But one taxpayer said the proposed budget is rife with errors, miscalculations and unwise revenue and expenditure predictions.

Bee County Tax Assessor-Collector Andrea Gibbud, who is running for Precinct 3 commissioner’s post this November, warned commissioners that their projected beginning-of-the-year balance may be off by hundreds of thousands of dollars if past budgets are any indication.

Gibbud, who said she was speaking as a taxpayer and not public servant, said commissioners have repeatedly projected beginning balances that end up far short of their forecast.

Specifically, she said the 2005-06 budget, adopted in September 2005, projected a beginning balance of $2,466,343 by Oct. 1, 2006. Yet the balance was actually $1,720,278 when Oct. 1 came around 12 months later, a shortfall of $746,000, she noted.

Likewise, the 2006-07 budget projected a starting balance of just over $2 million but was actually just over $1 million on Oct. 1, 2007, she said.

The 2007-08 budget projected a starting balance of $1,010,586 to be on hand this Oct. 1 but the actual balance will be closer to $940,668, she said.

The 2008-09 spending plan predicts there will be $803,230 beginning balance on Oct. 1, 2009.

“If history holds true, next year at this time you’ll be lucky to have $162,000 instead of $800,000,” she warned commissioners.

Gibbud also questioned commissioners’ desire to give an across-the-board pay raise for all county employees.

“I believe it is unwise for commissioners to give themselves a pay increase in a year in which you are adopting a deficit budget,” she said.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Eloy Rodriguez said he supports the pay raises.

“True, the commissioners have approved a pay raise for themselves, but it’s not only for ourselves but for all the other elected officials in the county as well,” he explained.

He said the pay raise also will help all county employees with the rising cost of living.

“The cost of living has gone up possibly 10 percent in the past year,” he noted. “We wanted to give our employees a 5 percent pay raise but couldn’t, so we’re giving them a 3 percent raise. But, when you compare that to a 10 percent cost of living increase, I think we need to do something.”

“I know we’re short of funds, but we have some excellent employees and we have to compete with the business world (for workers),” he continued. “We have to reward our workers from time to time. The last time we gave them a pay raise was two years ago and before that it was three years before we gave them any type of raise. If we lose employees, we will have to train new ones and it’s going to cost us just as much or more.”

Gibbud also wondered why commissioners budgeted $30,000 less for food expenses this year for the county jail.

“I think the court is being unrealistic to think that by budgeting $144,000 for jail supplies — jail food — that it will not cost more than the $175,000 that it’s already cost this year. Food prices have gone up. Why project what you know will create a budget deficit and shortfall, and which will require a budget amendment?”

Precinct 2 Commissioner Susan Stasny said jail administrators requested the $144,000 for food expenses this budget year.

Gibbud said she understood jail administrator Mike Page to ask for more money for inmate food during a budget workshop this summer.

(Page did ask commissioners for more funding for inmate food, citing the rising cost of food. However, when commissioners repeatedly questioned Page on exactly what inmates were being fed at the county jail, he grew angry and told them they could budget zero for the budget item if they wanted.)

Bee County businessman William Yates spoke during the public hearing portion of Monday night’s meeting. He said the proposed tax rate increase will hamper businesses and cause businesses to look elsewhere instead of moving to Bee County.

Yates, who did not say which business he owned, said he understands commissioners are interested in luring new business to the area and their subsequent property tax and sales tax revenue so that the county has more revenue to spend.

But he said that’s the wrong way to run the county and attract business.

Instead, he said, commissioners should do more to help businesses locate in Bee County.

“I came to this county because of its strategic location,” he explained. “As far as having the tools necessary to grow my business and run my business in this county, I don’t have it. I don’t have the people that are educated. I don’t have the facilities. I don’t have housing for employees. It’s very unattractive in that nature. So we can’t expect business to move into the county and create more tax revenue. That’s not going to happen until we do things to put the county back into (good financial) shape.”

One way commissioners can help entice new business to the county is to lower taxes.

“One of the biggest turnoffs for business is high taxes,” he said.

And offering businesses tax breaks, which the county proposes to do, will only mean that individual homeowners will pick up the tax revenue loss, he added.

Yates reiterated several other cost-cutting proposals he suggested at a public hearing earlier this month, such as consolidating the offices of justices of the peace.

County Judge David Silva told Yates that such an action must first be approved by voters and then the Justice Department and that if it is approved, only two justices of the peace offices could be done away with.

Stasny said she looked into his proposal and found that the county could save roughly $50,000 by consolidating the offices.

Yates also suggested that the county move the justice of the peace offices in the north and south end of the county to the courthouse to save on fuel, electricity and other costs. However, Stasny said the justice of the peace offices in those areas of the county are a convenience residents in those parts of the county don’t mind paying taxes for.

She said she would not vote to move them to the courthouse.

Stasny also assured Yates that the county already has consolidated the precinct “yards.” She said Bee County voters approved the idea in 1984 and since then all equipment and personnel operate out of one county yard located near the county jail.